Don't Get Me Started with Linda Sharp

People In Glass Penthouses...

Will someone tell me what I'm missing here?

Seriously, I am stymied.

It started when Trump invited Gennifer Flowers - one of the starring players in the Bill Clinton affair drama back in the day - to sit front row at the asswhipping he received debate this past Monday night.  Somehow, in his tiny orange mind, having one of the women who freely carried on a consensual affair with Hillary's husband decades ago, was somehow going to do something.

Do what?  I have no idea, but then my grey matter is actually grey, not tinged the color of a sunbleached gourd.

Was it supposed to throw her?  Scare her?  Make her weep?

If you haven't been paying attention, the woman is basically cast iron.  Steel, forged by time, experience, facing actual world crisis, and yes, her own marriage's cracks and violations.

She is still standing.  Still married.

Once Gennifer Flowers had accepted the invite, and the story began making headlines, people began loudly asking WTF?  Seriously, what does she, or anyone from Bill's past, have to do with THIS presidential election?  Pundits, pollsters, and regular people began making it known that it was ridiculous.  What it was was a sophomoronic dick move.  And guess what?

Suddenly her invite vanished.

That did not stop Donald though.  Towards the end of the pants-shitting-meltdown-by-the-tan-toddler debate, he actually stated that he was being a gentleman and not bringing up a certain something in order to spare her (Hillary) and Chelsea.  Anyone with a brain knew what he was alluding to.

Were we all supposed to go, "Awww, good man, you.  Taking the high road and not inserting decades old infidelity that doesn't matter one whit into the debate."?

Well, post getting publicly kicked in the tiny dick debate he ran to the first microphone and patted himself on the back for his restraint, and then indicated he would not hold back in the next debate. "I'm very happy that I was able to hold back" on Bill Clinton's "indiscretions." and that he will "go harder" next debate, bringing up Bill Clinton's infidelities.

I see.  Not.

Cue Rudy My-wife-and-kids-found-out-from-the-media-that-I-was-having-an-affair-and-divorcing-her Giuliani.  His public meltdown into complete mental diarrhea continued as he went on full blast about how HE would have gone after her about Bill and Monica Lewinsky (another adult who may have been younger, but was old enough to go into her dalliance with Bill with her eyes and mouth wide open).

Again, to what end?

Today, Beavis Eric Trump, lauded his father's restraint.  “I mean, he really took the high ground where he had the opportunity to go very, very low."  Eric, sunshine, your father lives very low.  Shit, he practically crawls.

And today, Trump is back out slithering on the campaign trail and boasting, “I was holding back, I didn’t want to do anything to embarrass her.”  But promising he will in the next one.

Here's the thing, Donald - even Chelsea Clinton, who lived through that whole embarrassment while Bill was in the Oval, is openly talking about your bullshit.  "[I]t’s a distraction from his inability to talk about what’s actually at stake in this election..."  Get it, Trump?

She doesn't care.  Hillary doesn't care.  Bill doesn't care.  We don't care.

If anything, it is laughable to those of us who do not reside on Bullshit Mountain (where facts, reality, and recorded history get stopped and frisked and shot at the border).

Frankly, we would love for you to bring up Bill's infidelity to somehow smear Hillary, as if she is responsible for it.  Hell, we know that is what you believe.  You have given interviews repeatedly in which you bragged about your own infidelities and how it is "the woman's fault" for not "keeping her man happy".

Do you really think you can somehow break Hillary by bringing up on national TV what was played out on national TV?  She will laugh in your face, answer your stupid question, and then go chapter and verse about your own track record, complete with accurate quotes from your mouth.

Way back in 2000, in talking to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews about a hypothetical run, “Can you imagine how controversial I’d be? You think about Clinton and the women. How about me and the women? Can you imagine?”

His long standing motto about women?  “You have to treat ’em like s--t.”

After finally getting Marla - who he cheated on Ivana with - (remember, he likes the WIN, that's all) he stated, “I was bored when she was walking down the aisle.”

Think I am making this up?  “It’s all about the hunt and once you get it, it loses some of its energy. I think competitive, successful men feel that way about women.” (As quoted in TrumpNation, Timothy L. O’Brien, 2005)

From his book The Art of the Deal, “If I told the real stories of my experiences with women, often seemingly very happily married and important women, this book would be a guaranteed best-seller."

Spare us, Donald.  The mere thought of your flaccid, corpulent, bag of skin in flight over someone is enough to take the sight out of a mind's eye.

(And yes, Melania is twirling jewelry like spaghetti in that picture.)

The point here is simple:  You've got nothing.  Whatever goes on in your middle school maturity mind - visions of Hillary crying at her locker?  Hillary's eye's glistening in the klieg lights of the debate stage?  Hillary being left open mouthed, stunned, with no reply? - NOT HAPPENING.

Her own daughter is out in public laughing at you about this.  They are not embarrassed about it.  You have no ground to gain here.  Will your horde of WHITEwalkers grab their tiny dicks and cheer at your insults?  Sure.  In their empty heads they envision getting to snuggle up to Melania if they elect you.  They're stupid.  And gullible.  And behave badly in their own daily lives.

Hillary was cheated on.  Hillary lived it very publicly, including her decision to stay with Bill.  Many decades have passed.  And their marriage is no more our business now than it was then.  And you know damned well had she left him you'd be trying to skewer her with that - some religious bullshit about the sanctity of it all, and staying together, and vows.  Which would be just as laughable considering your own track record.

But hey, go ahead, keep it up.  Encourage your surrogates to keep it up.  You only look smaller and smaller each time because in the end?  What Bill did has zero to do with Hillary running for President, won't save anyone's life in Aleppo, won't help our racial disparities, won't feed the poor, won't save the next innocent bystander from bullets in a mall, and won't get you any closer to the White House.

Unless you're on a tour.

And honestly, if this is your tactic as some way to portray Hillary as responsible for Bill cheating, and ergo unfit to lead?  Well, I would rather take the one cheated on, than the one who openly brags about cheating so many times on his wives.  You're like the instructions on a shampoo bottle - lather, rinse, recheat.

Seriously, serial adulterers people in glass penthouses really should not throw boners stones, Donnie.

There Is No Debating The Debate - The Emperor Is Buck Naked

While the final numbers won't come in until later today, in the run-up experts predicted an estimated 100 million people would be tuning in for last night's first 2016 Presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.  A number rivaled only by the Super Bowl.

Given the cage match mentality of a certain candidate and his supporters, that is not surprising. (And I freely admit tuning in for the sport of watching a spoiled, intellectually incurious brat who thinks he has the "best words" be taken to the woodshed by the most qualified candidate in the history of ever.)

Trump's legion of factose intolerant followers have long touted his main bona fides as being "he talks like me" "he says what he thinks" "he is not politically correct".  They embrace his smarm, believing he would actually deign to mingle with them outside of this farce.  They cheer his calls for profiling, for demonizing entire groups of people.  He is endorsed by every white nationalist, Nazi loving, KKK member, yet his other supporters stand proudly side by side with those who wear their bedsheets as clothing. 

They love how he Tweets insults at 3am at anyone who dares to call him out on his bullshit, lies, and dangerous rhetoric.  They have no problem with his misogyny as he demeans any woman who does not kowtow to him.  He points at group after group, raising the hate stakes each time, and they respond by cheering louder.

He lies.  And they simply do not care.

So, with all that idiotic support behind him, believing 100% that the hubris, bluster, and bravado that had gotten him to this point was enough, into the Octagon onto the debate stage he stepped with Hillary Clinton.

He was outplayed from the first step as she crossed the stage to his side to shake his hand.

What ensued would actually be hilarious if an entire country and its ability to lead in this world were not on the line.

Clinton may have started out a little scripted, but it took no time to warm up and begin speaking straight from experience, knowledge, and a worldview gained by doing..

When Trump shut his ignorant piehole long enough for her to actually answer the questions, that is.  Something he never did.

Watching Trump was a master class in what happens when the arrogant, not-too-bright bully runs for Student Council.  Not because he actually wants the job involved, but because he thinks he deserves it and can bulldoze his way to getting enough votes.  He had no answers for anything.  He sweated profusely.  He sniffed constantly like Frank Booth in Blue Velvet.  He took on more water than the Titanic drank more water than Mark Rubio.  And he lost his shit repeatedly when called on his shit by Hillary and Lester Holt.

All Hillary had to do each time was stand there and smile as he poured gasoline on himself and lit the match.  (Oh, and David Frum?  Which do you want?  A week ago you called Hillary out for not smiling enough - a classic misogynistic dick technique - and last night you asked why she smiled so much?  Hell, I give her credit for not busting a gut laughing out loud as Trump imploded.)

Watching it on Bloomberg, a channel with real time fact checking, the screen constantly lit up with lie after lie after lie.  But then, going back to the description in the previous sentence, his whole campaign has been "pants on fire."

Trump, like so many GOPers before him, still has not come to terms with the simple technology of RECORD > PLAY.  Or in his case, TWEET > SCREEN SHOT.  He was called out repeatedly as lying and did what the best liars do - he doubled, tripled, quadrupled down on his lies.

He was called out about his tax returns and not paying taxes.  His retort?  "That makes me smart."  Oh, that we could all be that "smart", Donald.  I would love to have the seven grand back we paid this past year.

He was called out about the endless stream of litigation against him for not paying workers, contractors, and laughed it off.  I'm with Betty White who Tweeted we should all go stay at Trump hotels and not pay.  Because?  <Make up your own bullshit reason like Donnie>

This man who has made insulting women his calling card, stood there and still clung to a decade old tiff with Rosie O'Donnell.  Yes, because that is the kind of person we want in the Oval.

And the shouting.  FFS, the shouting.  That Lester Holt's Jell-O spine did not stiffen up till very late in the game allowed Trump to literally shout over Hillary constantly.   And yes, I sat here envisioning all his constituents wildly fapping cheering him on, because after all, this is how they navigate their own little lives.  They know they are not the brightest bulbs on the tree, they are professional victims in every area of their lives - no matter the issue, it is always someone else's fault, and they believe that being louder or hitting means they won.

Wrong.

It means a maturity level equal to a  toddler being denied a second helping of Goldfish.  It means being ill equipped to have any sort of rational debate with an opposing view.  It means no accountability, and a lizard brained impulse to ball a fist at the first sign of disagreement.

Look, I don't care if someone is not very smart.  Some people simply do not have the capacity for advanced thought or education.  That's why doctors, scientists, Stephen Hawkings are not a dime a dozen.  Some people simply don't have the interest or the drive.  That's fine.  Education, smarts, quickly firing synapses, and being a decent human are mutually exclusive traits.  What I do care about are people who turn their back on information that is important.  Like when someone lies every 3 minutes, like Trump.  I care when people refuse to open their minds and learn about other people, instead choosing the easy path of fear, ignorance, and hate.  I care about that a lot.

The entire GOP platform revolves around hurting other people.  Taking back hard won rights from LGBT citizens.  Giving religion a freedom it should not enjoy outside the doors of the church in which it is housed.  Demonizing entire swaths of innocent people because that is easier than grasping nuance, processing details.  My son is transgender.  The GOP wants to hurt him.  The GOP says it is ok to hurt him.

And if you are aligned with that party, that pathetic excuse for a candidate for our highest office, you want to hurt my son, too.  You cannot stand neck deep in their shit swamp of bigotry, bias, hate, fear of the other, misogyny, zealotry, and flat out lies, and act like you are somehow clean.  You cannot stand shoulder to shoulder with KKK members and act like you are not with them.  And to watch you embrace this dangerous hate speech?  You do it because it isn't aimed at YOU.  And you cannot even envision it ever being aimed at you.  Good luck with that.  You seem to ignore how his net gets wider and wider each time he stumps.

I get it - many of you don't understand how politics, hell, the world works.  You don't understand the cultural shifts taking place.  You feel your long held beliefs no longer matter.  You feel threatened by a world that is literally content to leave you on the side of the road.  That is not the world's fault.  That is YOURS.  Not understanding something is fine. Refusing to step up and fill in your blanks is not.  Being raised in ignorance happens.  Clinging to it in the face of accurate information is a choice.  Being raised a bigot happens, hell, that is how it happens, it is taught.  Staying one is an active choice.  Wanting all the rights for yourself and denying other citizens the same?  Sorry, but no.  The country, the world, IS changing, shifting, growing, moving forward.  This country is becoming the inclusive, equal place the Constitution declares it to be.  And no amount of you acting badly, shitting your pants, or embracing a proudly ignorant narcissist is going to change that.  YOU can change.  But again, CHOICE.

After cryptically patting himself on the back as a gentleman during the debate for not bringing up certain personal issues from Clinton's past - yes, Donnie, we all know you invited Gennifer Flowers and then backtracked when you realized no one was impressed with that dick move -  he left the stage to tell reporters, "I'm very happy that I was able to hold back" on Bill Clinton's "indiscretions." and that he will "go harder" next debate, bringing up Bill Clinton's infidelities.   What in the actual fuck do they have to do with this election?  And more to the point, Donald, YOU ARE A SERIAL CHEATER YOURSELF.  A BRAGGY ONE, TO BOOT.  (Sorry, braggadocious.) INTERVIEWS ABOUND WITH YOU JUSTIFYING CHEATING ON YOUR WIVES.

It is not surprising in the least that as pundit after pundit after TV channel after TV channel (even FOX talking heads were thrown) started calling the debate a win for Hillary that Donald, not even out of the venue, started making excuses. It's what he does.

That constant sniff?  We all, 100 million of us, did not actually hear that.

“No sniffles, no,” he said. “The mic was very bad, but maybe it was good enough to hear breathing.”

All that bombast and constant interrupting?  We did not hear that accurately either.

“It was on and off and it was much lower than her’s,” he said, referring to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. “I don’t want to believe in conspiracy theories of course but it was much lower than hers and it was crackling.”

Ahhh, Donnie, maybe that shit works with your victim-y, conspiracy loving base, but it does not play with the rest of us, who incidentally outnumber your supporters. 

WE HEARD YOU.  EVERY WORD.

Jesus, would that Holt had the ability to jack your mic and turn it off when you overstepped, interrupted, ran over your time, and lied.

As it was, your microphone worked just fine.  I never heard a crackle.  Just a lot of nervous sniffing, grunting, and a constant stream of deflective bullshit.

Face it, Donald, you brought a sponge to a brain fight.  You know nothing about the job to which you aspire. 

I take that back.  Trump does not actually want the job, he simply wants to WIN.  That is his entire ethos.  And as it is, he knows he is going to lose, ergo the assertions of "rigged" and "conspiracy".  He has been planting those seeds for months so when it happens and he is left wearing his considerable ass as a hat (seriously, Donald - 400 pound hackers? - those in very large glass penthouses should not throw Twinkies), those same dullards who swore they were going to win in a landslide the last two times, will rally to his side and declare the results invalid.

Only you people won't actually have a side of his to rally to.  Once he loses, he will disappear back into Trump Tower, forget you ever existed, bathe himself in Purell for a month to get rid of the stink of the unwashed masses, and somewhere down the road look into a TV camera and deny ever having run in the first place.

So save your pathetic and meaningless #TrumpWon hashtags, cries of Benghazi!, and desperate email accusations.  Hillary has been investigated repeatedly BY YOUR SIDE and YOUR SIDE CAME UP EMPTY.  She is the single most qualified person to ever run for this office.  By contrast, your emperor has no clothes.  And no qualifications.

HE. LOST. LAST. NIGHT.   Your petulant, bombastic, rude, ignorant, reprobate hero LOST.

That is simply not up for debate.

A Moment

I am back from my ten day trip with Culley, Toby and Sean.  I had planned to sit down and touch on the moments that truly stand out in my mind from our cruise and two days at Disney.  And there were many moments.  Moments that made me laugh, catch my breath, even stop me short with an unexpected tear to the eye.

Moments.

They are our takeaways.  They are the split seconds in time that mean so much that they sear themselves in as memories.  They are the defining moments in a journey, an experience, a life.  They are also the ticks on the clock when we make decisions, choices, take actions we may see bear positive fruit, or the rancid decay of regret.

I may well steer myself back to the keyboard to share those Disney moments with you later this week.  But the only moment that brings me to the blog today is the moment when yet another black man died.  Scratch that, was murdered. 

His crime?  Car trouble, apparently.

I am at once numb and overwhelmed by the murder of Terence Crutcher. 

Numb, because when first seeing the headline, I experienced the same emotional ennui so many us of feel at these stories.  They are too often, too regular, too expected.  And by their frequency, even those of us who do care so very much, who do see the absolute inequity at play, who do understand the words BLACK LIVES MATTER - we see, we sigh, we sit numbed.

Overwhelmed, because it only takes two eyes, a heart, and a brain that processes free of bullshit and kneejerk apologism, to see an innocent man gunned down and left without aid to die in the street where he had car trouble.

It begins and ends there for me - in that last portion of the sentence.

Where he had car trouble.

Mr. Crutcher, on his way home from the community college, had car trouble.  That's it, that's all.  He was not committing a crime. 

He was simply in need of aid.  A tow.  An extra set of hands and muscles to help push his car form the roadway.

Now, were it me?  Stalled out.  Outside my vehicle.  Police would pull up.  Police would walk calmly towards me.  Police would ask what the problem may be.  Police would then render what assistance they could.  Police would stay with me sharing bad jokes and stories until AAA showed up.

I would not be immediately suspect.  The helicopter people above would not be caught referring to me as a "bad dude."  Tasers would not be a consideration.  And guns would most certainly never leave their holsters.  Which means I would never end up face down on the pavement, bleeding out. 

But then, I am a white woman.  I am protected by the privilege my sex and my skin tone immediately afford me. 

How any white person can watch the videos available - from so many encounters like this - and deny that black skin all too often is a death sentence, is beyond me.  Are you willfully belligerent?  Are you so frightened of having your obvious privilege called out, fearful that admitting it means it might vaporize?  Or are you just that stupid and callous? 

The apologists' lines are always the same regardless of the (pardon the choice of term) black and white video evidence before them.

If he had just complied...

He was reaching...

The cops felt threatened...

He was acting erratically...

You never hear a single one of them say, "Damn.  They just shot him dead."

As this day has moved forward, the Tulsa police department is now saying they found a small vial of PCP in his vehicle.  I DO NOT CARE.  I do not care if his entire vehicle was filled fender to fender with black tar heroin.  I do not care if he had a record.  I do not care if he posted questionable pictures on his Facebook.

What I care about is the MOMENT he was killed.  A MOMENT in which he was not guilty of anything.  He had no weapon.  His hands were raised as he walked back to his vehicle.  The MOMENT he was shot and left to die on the road.

They are also saying he was reaching into his vehicle through the window, somehow justifying the murder.  Oops, the attorneys for his family immediately released a screen grab from the video that shows blood streaked from the top to the bottom of the closed window.

"You can see it is completely up and there is blood going almost to the top of the window," said attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the family along with Melvin C. Hall and Solomon-Simmons. "We thought it was important to address this misinformation that has been put out for public consumption," Crump said.

This man's life had value, merit.  This man had family and friends who loved him, who cared, who lit up when he came around.

And in a single moment, he was gone.

A moment in which an officer played judge, jury, AND executioner.  A moment in which other officers surrounded her and watched it happen.  A moment in which all those officers, instead of rendering aid to a bleeding man, immediately began formulating a lie, that he would not comply, would not follow their commands to raise his hands, etc.  A lie they clung to until that inconvenient video emerged showing his hands firmly raised, him not acting threateningly.

Look, we all would like to think that every person who wears a badge and carries a gun is a social justice laureate.  But the reality is that they are just people.   And as such, some are great, some are shit.  Some distribute justice and aid fairly, evenly, some allow their own personal prejudices to be the filter through which they decide. 

Not every officer is a good officer.

Why is it so hard for so many to accept that?  With more and more technology at play, more and more lying, abusive, murderous, power hungry, God complexed officers are being outed.  And they should be both fired and held accountable in courts of law.  Sadly, what happens far too often is that the blue wall protects them, and the willfully bigoted in society do, too.

Is Officer Betty Shelby a bad seed?  I do not know.  She was not responding to the 911 call about the car blocking the road.  She was on her way to another call and came upon Crutcher and his vehicle.  She had no knowledge whatsoever about the car or the man.  However, she is now being touted as a "drug recognition expert" as they simultaneously release information about the vial in his vehicle.  Was he actively on the substance?  I do not know that either.  What I do know is that she chose the MOMENT to draw her weapon, pull the trigger, and end another black man's life.  ALL CAUGHT ON VIDEO.

There must be accountability here.  Will there be?  That is uncertain.  The Blue Rumpelstiltskin Wheel has already begun to try to spin bullshit into gold to protect their actions.  Each spin being undone and shown to be a lie.

The only certainty, the one thing we can count on, is that the next MOMENT is right around the corner.  And as opposed to the moments I had intended to write about from my trip, the ones filled with laughter and joy, the next MOMENT I refer to will only be filled with the tears of another black family.

Rest in peace, Terence Crutcher - your black life did, does matter.